I made this cake for my birthday a few months ago. It was amazing. The perfect mixture of flavors.

I have been craving a banana cake for maybe 8 years now, ever since I had my first bite of a banana cake. One of the ladies that worked for the construction company in the Bay Area that I worked for years ago has a baker son. He’s just not any baker – he is the main cake guy for Oprah. He made cakes for, I believe, Jessica Simpson’s fist wedding and Christina Aguilera’s first wedding. He is the man behind Perfect Endings located in Napa, one of the two cities that I grew up in.

He made this banana cake for one of my company’s holiday parties. I couldn’t remember anything about his banana cake except that it was SO good – I mean, I’ve been wanting another piece for years! It might have had chocolate frosting, I think it was one layer…

I decided to make a banana cake for my birthday, and I put my own touch on it. The cake that I created was four layers with two layers of homemade vanilla pudding, two layers of crunchy Nutella, and was frosted with crunchy Nutella. Even though it was so rich some of my friends wanted seconds!

Ingredients

Banana Cake Ingredients:

adapted from http://www.lifeloveandsugar.com/2013/08/27/soft-and-moist-banana-cake/

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup mashed bananas (2-3 bananas)

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

Vanilla Pudding Ingredients:

2 cups milk

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons corn starch

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon butter

Nutella Ingredients

1 jar crunchy Nutella, or smooth – your choice

Banana Cake Directions:

1) Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl.

2) Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture, beat to combine.

3) Add flour and baking soda, beat to combine.

4) Add the bananas, milk and vanilla, beat to combine.

5) Pour the batter as evenly as possible into (4) greased 8 inch pans (you can also add a sheet of parchment paper to the bottom of the pans).

6) Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. You do not want to overcook the cake as it should be super moist.

7) Cool the cakes in their pans for about 10 minutes, then flip them onto cooling racks until completely cooled.

Vanilla Pudding Directions:

1) While the cake is baking, heat the milk in a saucepan over medium heat until it bubbles – be sure that you don’t over cook or burn the milk! Turn down to low.

2) Stir together the sugar, cornstarch and salt in a bowl. Pour the mixture into the heated milk a little bit at a time, stirring during each addition.

3) Continue to cook the pudding until it thickens just enough to coat the back of a spoon. Do not boil!!

4) Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and butter.

5) Pour into a bowl and let cool in your refrigerator.

To Assemble:

1) After the cakes and pudding have cooled, cut off the un-even parts of the cakes with a bread knife.

2) Place the first layer of cake onto a decorative plate. Scoop out about half of the pudding on top of the first layer of cake. Spread evenly.

3) Place a few toothpicks on the first layer; then place the second layer on top of the cake/pudding being sure the catch the toothpicks. Spread about 1/8 – 1/4 of the Nutella on top of the second cake layer.

4) Place a few toothpicks on the second layer; then place the third layer on top of the cake/Nutella being sure the catch the toothpicks. Spread the rest of the pudding evenly over the third layer.

5) Place a few toothpicks on the third layer; then place the fourth layer on top of the cake/pudding being sure the catch the toothpicks. Spread Nutella over the top of the last layer. Then carefully spread Nutella on the sides of the cake – the pudding will have oozed out, so to make it cleaner just lick off the pudding…just kidding, scoop it off with a knife / spatula, then eat it!